Nano to get Cheaper Airbags

By
Motortrend India Staff
|
04 June,2008

As Nano is moving from blueprint to production, Tata Motors has decided to add effective safety features at affordable costs. The company has awarded the contract to Autoliv IFB India to develop airbags for the Nano. It will cost only $10 and will be the world’s cheapest airbag.

Autolive is a leading global automotive safety components supplier and comprises 28 percent of market share for airbags. Currently, airbag prices start from Rs 6,394 to Rs 8,526 in India. Maruti Suzuki is already using them in some of its models. Tata Motors is likely to install the airbags in the Delux version of Nano, which will also have features like the air-conditioning, music system and alloy wheels.

Airbags inflate quickly in the event of a car crash and protects passengers from bodily injury with its cushioning effects. Airbags can quickly sense an impact and inflate within a fraction of seconds. As seats belts restrain passengers to the seat, airbags cushion passengers against serious injuries during an accident.

It is a mandatory component in cars in most of the countries. But in India it is provided only in high end cars or is given as an option for most small cars.

Tata is trying its best to meet the target of Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, Tata Motors had asked Bosch to develop low cost yet effective fuel injection for the diesel variant of Nano. Similarly, the Honeywell Turbo India developed a miniature turbocharger system for the small engine.

As Tata Motors wants to monitor the costs of the Tata Nano, and hold on to the title of the world’s cheapest car, new technologies are being developed at lower costs.

Motor Trend India needs Javascript enabled for it to work optimally. We have detected that Javascript is disabled on your browser. Please enable Javascript to get the full interactive experience of our website.